A Side of Gaming...To Go!

February 25, 2009 - Matt Phillips

No video game collection would be complete without a look into portable gaming. Without a doubt, Nintendo has proven that they are the king of the portable game. With the massive success of the Gameboy line and its successor the Nintendo DS, no other portable system has successfully challenged Nintendo. That hasn't stopped other companies from trying, there are many other portable systems that have tried to compete over the years. Sega and Sony have been successful to some degree, but the more obscure entries into the portable format are interesting to find.

One of my favorite obscure portable is the Tiger Game.com. It was released in 1997 and was designed to compete with Gameboy. It had many novel features, including: a touch screen with stylus, two game cartridge slots, limited internet capabilities, and a built in solitaire game. The system was redesigned after its initial release to streamline it and make it smaller. Among the games released for this system are: Resident Evil 2, Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Duke Nukem 3D. The screen is black and white like the Gameboy with better graphics. This system was truly ahead of its time, however, one of the main problems with this system is the fact that the screen blurs considerably then the characters on screen move, this makes game play difficult in some games.

If you are inclined to collect portables Game.com is not too hard to find for a decent price. Other portables to consider are: Sega's Game Gear and Nomad, Neo Geo Pocket Color, WonderSwan, and TurboGrafix Xpress. Of course any Nintendo Gameboy product should be easy to find. For some real obscure collecting look for Chinese "knock off" systems like the Game Theory Admiral, one of many Famicom/NES portable systems. Good luck and happy hunting!